The Mission

This monument is an effort to memorialize our cruel history of slavery and to help us heal from it, to honor Lewis and Harriet Hayden, two of Lexington’s enslaved who became famed abolitionists, to remember the stories of other enslaved persons in Lexington and to commemorate their paths to freedom via Lexington’s Underground Railroad.

There can be no healing by selectively forgetting or hiding the past, we must confront it.  This monument just a few blocks from Lexington’s famed slave market, will be a constant and visible reminder of our racist history.  It honors not only Lewis and Harriet Hayden but every enslaved Lexingtonian. It will be one of the first monuments in the city representing enslaved African Americans.

Located on a middle school property in Lexington’s East End neighborhood, the monument will become an educational tool for students.  Instead of trying to prevent teaching of our history of slavery, it will provide a “real and honest” historic perspective in plain view on the property.   

“Current events in our country echo a need for such a monument.  The Underground Railroad, the enslaved we chose to honor, the artist and Lexington’s desire to look at history accurately have serendipitously aligned.” Linda Carroll

Committee Members and Advisors

LexArts: Nathan Zamarron & Kay’mon Murrah

LFUCG Mayor’s Office: Mayor Linda Gordon

First District Councilmember: Tayna Fogle

Councilmember at Large: James Brown

Historian: Yvonne Giles

Community Representatives: Larry Kezele, Bill Harris, Diana Martin, Jim Burton, Maury Sparrow

Kentucky Poet Laureate 2013: Frank X Walker

The Living Arts & Science Center: Jeanette Tesmer, Executive Director

University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts and Sculpture: Gary Bibbs

University of Kentucky African American and Africana Studies: Vanessa Holden

Lexington Traditional Magnet School

Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association

Kentucky Humanities Council